{"id":55514,"date":"2025-10-02T03:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/55514\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T03:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:29:08","slug":"dan-hooker-books-return-against-arman-tsarukyan-in-ufc-qatar-main-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/55514\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Hooker books return against Arman Tsarukyan in UFC Qatar main event"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bout was confirmed by UFC boss Dana White, along with a welterweight co-main event between former champion Belal Muhammad and No 6-ranked Irish contender Ian Machado Garry. <\/p>\n

\u201cArman won nine of his last 10 fights, he\u2019s got wins over [Charles] Oliveira, [Beneil] Dariush, he\u2019s on a four-fight win streak – the guy is a dangerous dude,\u201d White said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s taking on Dan Hooker, whom you guys love and he\u2019s always looking for a finish, always looking to dog it out and fight it out. One of the most beloved guys in the sport, he\u2019s on a three-fight win streak.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bout will be Hooker\u2019s first since August last year, when he claimed a split-decision win over Mateusz Gamrot in Perth in a fight-of-the-night performance. <\/p>\n

He was booked to be back<\/a> in action in March against American fan-favourite Justin Gaethje, but was forced to withdraw from the meeting due to a hand injury which required surgery. <\/p>\n

The match-up is one Hooker has been calling for, with he and Tsarukyan having traded barbs on social media and in interviews over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

The fight will be Tsarukyan\u2019s first since a split decision win over former champion Oliveira last April. Following that win, the 28-year-old was due to challenge for the belt against then-champion Islam Makhachev in January. <\/p>\n

However, the Armenian pulled out less than two days before the fight due to a back injury suffered while cutting weight. That was not taken well by the UFC, with White saying Tsarukyan would have to fight again before they considered booking him for another title shot. <\/p>\n

He did, however, weigh in as the back-up fighter when the vacant title was contested between Oliveira and Ilia Topuria in June, which Topuria won. <\/p>\n

It is unclear what is next for champion Topuria, though Max Holloway (3) and Gaethje (5) could be among the options considered as athletes ranked in the top five and coming off a win. <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bout was confirmed by UFC boss Dana White, along with a welterweight co-main event between former champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9092,46792,489,13842,8231,22311,78,3120,111,139,69,384,7917,1527,213,46793,4306],"class_list":["post-55514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-against","tag-arman","tag-books","tag-dan","tag-event","tag-hooker","tag-in","tag-main","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-qatar","tag-return","tag-sports","tag-tsarukyan","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}